Highly reccomended Edward Jay's GD Anglo

[Gregor Markič]

Summary: Edward Jay's concertina is the best I ever played. And I played many.

 

I don't remember exactly how long, I would guess at least a year before he rolled out his first 3d printed concertina, I admired Edward's work. I ordered a GD concertina from him in 2021 and then I changed my mind, because tall expenses after Brexit for imports from GB in my country have become terribly high- 1/3 of the value of the purchase. I must have disappointed him by cancelling my order but luckily Edward found another buyer for that concertina. Then in 2022 Ed reached me again and I gathered up courage and ordered again the same instrument and with help of my friend who travelled to UK the Jay concertina came into my hands and it was love at first touch. I may not be a virtuoso in playing, but I have tried many instruments and I believe my evaluation of a concertina is a reliable one. I played one of the finest exemplaries- eg Eiru edition by Sean Garvey (Irish Concertina Company)., Stephan le Lan's exquisite Melodina, and Seth Hamon's fine concertina- among others. 

The keys are thick and flat. I like them this way a lot. I like playing thinner buttons as well-. like the buttons on McNeela's Tina. The one thing I really dislike about the otherwise excellent Clare concertina from Irish concertina company is that the buttons are slippery. The spaces between the buttons are perfect and the responsiveness of the buttons is optimal. Even when the smallest pressure is exerted on a button, the sound plays. This is crucial for trills and other musical ornamentations. The capacity of the bellows is impressive. Playing soft or loud doesn't have much impact on the quality of sound and soft playing is just captivating. 

I do not want to spend many words on the sound of the Edward's concertina other than that I love the sound a lot. I should limit myself to reviewing the playability and responsiveness of the keyboard.  In this regard Jay's concertina excels above all others. I bought a GD-pitched concertina from Edward. I find this tuning more suitable as an accompaniment to singing. I simply can't judge the sound since I only have one instrument to compare with. It is so that the lower the pitch of an instrument is the less consent will be achieved among listeners on the quality of the sound. Low tones are usually accompanied with some buzzing resonance and a richer coloration of the tone. Tuning is more difficult and even differences of temperature have an influence on the pitch and sound. The sound of a concertina depends a lot on the wood it is made from and on the ending of the concertina (metal/wood). A 3D printed concertina is of course made of plastic and this material is usually not highly appreciated in musical instruments building. I must say I am no big gourmet in sound quality. My persuasion is that the music resides within the soul and heart and not within the air and ear. It is still very important that a musician has a good instrument. In my five years of playing concertinas I can say that good instruments taught me a lot. At the beginning my teachers were of course bad instruments, but I learned a lot and now I need the best I can get. In other words: Jay's tina. I will post a recording, I only have to muster some courage to do so.

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Gregor Markič

[papawemba]

Thank you for the review :-)

It definitively seem like a quality concertina ! (great sound too, saw your vid on Facebook).

Jay is also a gentleman, even though you cancelled the first time, he accepted a second order...

Enjoy your Jay concertina !

 

Nicolas

[David Lay]

I tried to research the archival qualities of PVA on-line without much success.  Are there age effects that might show up long-term with this plastic such as plasticizer loss?  Is it UV stabilized?

[alex_holden]

9 hours ago, David Lay said:

I tried to research the archival qualities of PVA on-line without much success.  Are there age effects that might show up long-term with this plastic such as plasticizer loss?  Is it UV stabilized?

 

I believe the outer box is PLA not PVA. I don't know if the internal components are printed from something different.

Edited November 3, 2023 by alex_holden

[David Lay]

Always messing up my acronyms.....

[Marcus]

Gregor - I can’t seem to find your video. Can you post a link?

[David Lay]

I thought this page was informative regarding PLA.  

https://all3dp.com/2/what-is-pla-plastic-material-properties/

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

On 11/2/2023 at 10:39 PM, David Lay said:

I tried to research the archival qualities of PVA on-line without much success.  Are there age effects that might show up long-term with this plastic such as plasticizer loss?  Is it UV stabilized?

It’s only „biodegradable” in an industrial process, it won’t spontantaneously fall apart or react badly to moisture in the air. However, PLA has two unfortunate qualities. Firstly, it has very low temperature resistance, around 45 deg.C, so beware direct sun exposure or even more a car trunk on a sunny day, otherwise it will irreversibly deform. Secondly, it is very stiff and has „just ok” layer adhesion, so be careful not to drop it/hit it too hard, or it may crack/delaminate. However, this concerns the outer shell only, as Ed prints all internal parts with carbon fiber infused PLA, which is highly durable. But the temperature concern stays the same.